Congo: Gunmen fire on plane carrying aid workers

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Gunmen in eastern Congo fired Wednesday on a private plane carrying international aid workers who escaped into the forest and were later rescued, aid workers from the International Medical Corps told The Associated Press.

IMC regional director Miel Hendrickson said earlier that the endangered staff of the Los Angeles-based medical aid group were three Americans and one Georgian who were on the aircraft, and two Congolese staff who were at the landing strip outside Walikale mining town when the shooting erupted.

IMC aid worker Will Cragin said he was rescued hours after the incident, but did not give further details on his experience. He spoke to the AP from Walikale.

Hendrickson said Wednesday’s attack comes a few weeks after an Indian pilot was kidnapped at Walikale airport. The whereabouts of the foreigner who piloted Wednesday’s plane were not immediately clear.

In a separate incident, two foreign pilots were kidnapped Wednesday morning after landing at the main airstrip in Walikale town, a representative of the airline told the AP.

John Kanyoni of African Air Service Commuter said the Ukrainian pilot and Congolese co-pilot were seized Wednesday. He said the captors also looted the plane, and that the airline has not had contact with the kidnappers.

Congolese military officials said the men were piloting and co-piloting one of several small planes that flies daily to the town to ferry minerals.

The Indian pilot kidnapped from the airstrip outside Walikale two weeks ago was released after negotiations. The company he worked for refused to say if it paid militiamen a ransom.

The aid workers are in a team treating scores of people raped in rebel attacks July 30 to Aug. 4 in villages about 40 miles (70 kilometers) from Walikale.

Hendrickson said the number of people treated for rape in those attacks has risen to 242 from 192 last week. More and more survivors who had fled into dense forest have been coming out of hiding each day — some women completely naked, according to aid workers.

The attacks took place within miles of a U.N. peacekeeping camp for about 80 Indian soldiers, and thousands of Congolese troops based at Walikale, a 90-minute drive from the villages, raising questions about why nothing was done.

Those raped include four baby boys, one just a month old, and a great great-grandmother who was said to be 110 years old, according to civil society leader Charles Masudi Kisa.

Survivors have said their attackers were from the FDLR rebel group led by perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide who fled across the border to Congo in 1994 and have been terrorizing the population in eastern Congo ever since, along with Congolese Mai-Mai militia. The Rwandan rebel group has denied the reports.

On Tuesday, the U.N. envoy in charge of sexual violence in conflict urged Congo’s government to prosecute the perpetrators, and also warned leaders of the rebel and militia groups that they could be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court because widespread and systemic sexual violence can constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hendrickson said initial reports indicated those who fired on the plane were from one of several Mai-Mai groups operating in the area.

Rape has become a weapon of war in eastern Congo, where rebels and soldiers are enriching themselves from mining precious minerals, often used forced and child labor. They have little incentive to end the conflict.

Congo’s massive mineral resources have continued to fuel fighting in the east years after the rest of Congo enjoys relative peace following back-to-back civil wars that drew in armies from eight African nations in what became a massive international looting of Congolese minerals.